Read on Twitter
Last night, a guy walked up to a Montreal homeless shelter & found it closed due to a plumbing issue. He curled up in a public toilet instead. He froze to death. His name was Raphael André and he was a human being.
I didn't know #RaphaelAndré and I have no claim on his story. What I can say is this: Since the pandemic began, shelters have had to cut capacity, hours & services due to physical distancing. Homeless ppl are not exempt from 8 p.m. COVID curfew. (1/4?)
#Legault was warned about this. He said "there will be places" for homeless ppl to stay. He said police would "show understanding" w/regards to homeless ppl & spare them the $1500 fine (which might as well be $15K). (2/4?)
#Legault implied that beds would just appear out of nowhere. He implied that in a city w a documented profiling problem, police would suddenly give homeless ppl the benefit of the doubt & homeless ppl would suddenly trust police w their problems. (3/4?)
Of course that's not how it happened.That was magical thinking.That was carelessness in every sense of the word. That was lack of empathy and failure of foresight from #Legault & MNAs who waved the problem away & went back to their warm houses. And now a person is dead. (4/5)
COVID didn't cause #RaphaelAndre's death, the #Legault government's thoughtless COVID control measures did. They have blood on their hands. (5/5)
I should clarify that the plumbing issue wasn't the only reason for the Open Door shelter closure. There had been a COVID-19 outbreak there in December. When it reopened, according to @CBCMontreal, public health allowed it to reopen as a day centre only. #RaphaelAndré
